Premier League 2017/18

[The Lusophone]

2 minutes ago, Liam said:

Does that cover costs incurred during long injury layoffs/retirements?

It might vary from policy to policy (depending on club), but entry level stuff in the NGIS does cover that stuff, but has been criticised for being inadequate at the amatuer and semi-pro level. I assume, being a professional club in the top two leagues in England, Hull City have a comprehensive policy that covers long injury layoffs and retirements.

[therockbox]

Imagine if he decided to ignore the doctor's advice and carried on playing. He'd always be holding the side of his head in pain and falling over because he'd be concussed and generally just be a bit shit at football.

You've just imagined Granit Xhaka.

[Adam]

Really shit news, he had the capability to play at the very highest level and a freak occurrence like that has ended his career before it's ever got going.

He's one of the best pure players I've seen at Rovers, could tell then that he had the capability of going very far in the game.

[Lineker]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

I hope we bring him back to the club in some capacity, I know Poch absolutely loves him. 

Gutted for him, it's really horrible, especially so young. Obviously, it's the right decision, but still awful news. 

This. Genuinely heartbroken for him but he at least he has his life.

[Lineker]

Six weeks out for Lacazette, who's had surgery.

[Kaney]

....what

[Lineker]

3 minutes ago, Kaney said:

....what

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/13/arsenal-alexandre-lacazette-out-six-weeks-knee-operation

[Kaney]

Welp.

[Lineker]

Quote

The pay-TV broadcasters Sky and BT Sport have retained their hold on live televised Premier League football, paying £4.464bn to the clubs for the rights to the five main packages of matches from 2019-22. Two minor packages of rights remain to be sold, a new experiment by the Premier League to allow the entire fixture list of 10 matches to be broadcast simultaneously, four times a season. BT Sport said in a statement that it remains interested in those further rights, with the internet platform Amazon also said to be interested in securing some Premier League matches.

Sky committed to paying £3.579bn over the three years of the next deal, confirming that this is a significant reduction on the £4.1bn the broadcaster is paying for its prime packages in the current 2016-19 seasons. It will, though, have the rights to 128 matches, two more than under the current deal, and has bought every weekend “first pick” of matches and the most coveted kick-off times. Its packages will show matches at 5:30pm on Saturdays on 32 match days; Sundays at 2pm and 4:30pm and eight matches on Saturday nights at 7:45pm, the first time the Premier League has played matches at that time. Sky’s fourth package comprises Monday night and Friday night matches.

“Sky has chosen to pay £1.193m per annum under the terms of the new deal,” the company said in a statement, “down £199m per annum, a 16% cost reduction per game versus the current agreement.”

Sky paid more last time to preserve its dominant pay-TV position in the UK against the serious competition of BT, which was bidding for the first time, establishing its own subscription television service which also supports its commercial broadband ambitions. Having secured one package of 42 matches in the current deal, and the rights to all UK broadcasts of the Champions League, BT Sport said it had “remained financially disciplined” in the auction for the 2019-22 rights. The company has committed to paying £885m in total, £295m a year, for 10 fewer matches, 32 in total, all kicking off at 12:30pm on Saturdays. Of these, 20 will be “second pick” of the weekend’s most attractive matches for a broadcast audience, and the remaining 12 will be “fifth pick.”

Still predominantly a phone and broadband provider, BT Sport said it expected to make a profit on its £885m outlay: “BT Sport has remained financially disciplined during this process and remains in a strong position to make a return on this investment through subscription, wholesale, commercial and advertising revenues, especially following the acquisition of [mobile telephone network] EE, which more than doubled BT’s customer base,” the company said in its announcement.

The sudden ferocity of competition between Sky and BT Sport which boosted the Premier League clubs’ coffers for the 2016-19 cycle has calmed a little after the two companies signed a deal in December which enables each to offer the other’s channels on their platform. Sky, which has based its original revival from financial difficulties in 1992, and escalating commercial fortunes since, on securing exclusive rights to live Premier League football, is to show the matches on its dedicated Premier League channel. Famously Sky’s head of sport, David Hill, said in 1992 that of the sports needed to be secured whose supporters would pay subscriptions to watch it in Britain “it’s football first, second and third.” Four years later Rupert Murdoch, chairman and major shareholder in the BSkyB parent company, described sport as a “battering ram” for the expansion of Sky globally, the only programming which is guaranteed to bring an audience. Buying the live rights to matches through to 2022 means that Sky will have had exclusive access to sell subscriptions for Premier League matches for all 30 years since the Football League’s First Division clubs broke away to form their own league in 1992.

Commenting on the reduced £3.579bn the company is paying for its four prime packages, Stephen van Rooyen, Sky’s UK chief executive, said they had taken a “disciplined approach.”

The announcement of reduced income with two packages still to be sold was in line with analysts’ predictions that the auction would not surpass the record £5.1bn Sky and BT Sport paid for the current three year cycle. The deals maintain the Premier League as by far the world’s richest football league, with the overseas rights sales still to be concluded. The Bundesliga recently announced its next four year deal will be €4.64bn in total.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Ryan Mason has been spending time at the Spurs Academy and training ground. The belief is that, indeed, he will rejoin Tottenham as part of the coaching team, no doubt developing there as he takes his badges and qualifications.

[Gazz]

 

[Arjen Robben]

Don't think you could really say anything bad about Cech to begin with but this is just so great, given the circumstances.

[Colly]

Keeper, drummer, God among men. 

[FLiam]

23 hours ago, Kaney said:

Welp.

You mean, WelBECK. 

Because you know, he's our only hope in Europe now.

Unless Eddie plays.

Fuck it, play Eddie.

[Lineker]

Quote

The man who owned Portsmouth for six weeks during an ill-fated spell in 2009 has been sentenced to five years in a United Arab Emirates jail for stealing £5m from his wife to fund the purchase.

Sulaiman Al Fahim, who also fronted the Abu Dhabi United Group's deal to buy Manchester City in 2008, was found guilty of forgery, using forged documents and aiding and abetting.

He and an accomplice were found to have stolen the money used to buy Pompey from Sacha Gaydamak, with Al Fahim soon selling the club to Ali Al Faraj.

Al Fahim, 42, did not attend the hearing and was sentenced in his absence.

Prosecutors said that Al Fahim's wife discovered the money was missing after the returns she had expected from a high interest rate account she opened in 2009 did not come in.

She said she contacted the bank's accounts manager, but he "kept stalling" despite her asking him to move the account in September 2011.

When she decided to visit the bank in person, she was told there was no money in the account.

She then went to the bank's legal affairs department, and when they failed to take action she reported the matter to the police.

Dubai Criminal Court also convicted the bank manager of theft, forgery of official documents and use of forged official documents. He was also sentenced to five years in prison.

At the time of Al Fahim's ownership, Portsmouth were in the Premier League but the club was also in financial difficulty and had struggled to pay players and staff.

Four years later, Pompey had gone into administration twice, suffered three relegations and had seven different owners.

In 2013, it was taken over by the Pompey Supporters Trust (PST), who sold it to former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner in August 2017.

Last season the club was promoted from League Two to League One. They are currently ninth in the table.

In a 2009 interview with Radio Solent conducted after he had bought Portsmouth, Al Fahim said: "To be realistic we need a new ground and we want to strengthen the squad and the academy.

"Hopefully we can have a new stadium in place by 2015 or 16. We would like to be a top-eight club by that time."

PST spokesperson Ashley Brown told BBC Sport the case "once again raises questions about how owners can purchase football clubs".

The Premier League has tightened its rules on ownership since Al Fahim's brief spell, and stricter criteria now have to be met than at the time of his takeover - with changes introduced largely as a result of the club's tumultuous ownership history.

[Adam]

West Brom investigating after four players involved in an "incident" during their trip to Spain this week.

I thought it was questionable in the first place when I read Pardew's idea of saving West Brom from relegation was to jet off with them to Spain for a few days in the middle of this crucial period, but this just tops it off.

[Liam]

23 minutes ago, Los IngobernAdam de Japon said:

West Brom investigating after four players involved in an "incident" during their trip to Spain this week.

I thought it was questionable in the first place when I read Pardew's idea of saving West Brom from relegation was to jet off with them to Spain for a few days in the middle of this crucial period, but this just tops it off.

Allegedly, four drunk players stole a taxi.

[Gazz]

A foreign piss up. Exactly what you deserve as a reward for being bottom of the table.

[Liam]

Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill are the four in question.

[Lineker]

Classic Boaz.